Egyptian army pay disparity between soldiers and officers exceeded the Sultan’s by 8 times

Evidence

The soldiers were also much less regularly paid than their officers. Moreover, the difference in pay between their salaries and that of their senior officers was phenomenal: the ratio of the soldier’s salary to that of a colonel in the Sultan’s army was 1:60; in the Egyptian army it was over 1:500.55 It has also been seen in chapter 4 how ill equipped the soldiers were in terms of their uniforms. Here again they were discriminated against. The uniforms they were issued were worn out not only because the new ones were overdue, but also because the Pasha occasionally insisted that if insufficient funds were to force him to cut expenses, then it would be the soldiers and not the officers who would bear the brunt of the cuts. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1339